HAN YU (768-824)

Han Yu was born in 768 in Nanyang, Henan province, to a literary family. He is considered to be among China's finest prose writers, second only to Sima Qian, and he is the first among the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song. His father died when he was two, and he was raised in the family of his older brother, Han Hui. He taught himself to read and write and was a student of philosophical writings and of Confucian thought. His family moved to Changan in 774, but was banished to southern China in 777 due to their association with disgraced minister Yuan Zai. Han Hui died in 781, leaving the family in poverty, and they returned north around 784. In 792, after four attempts, he passed the Imperial Exam (Jin Shi), and a few years later went into the service of the military governor of Bianzhou, and later of the military governor of Xuzhou. Finally, in 802, he obtained a post as instructor at the Imperial University, a job that he held periodically, between other postings and several periods of exile; ultimately he was made Rector of the university. After a number of other distinguished posts in the government, he died at the age of 56 in Changan.

He was a Confucian thinker, and was deeply opposed to Buddhism, a religion which was then popular in the court. In fact, he came close to being executed in 819 for sending a letter to the emperor in which he denounced Athe elaborate preparations being made by the state to receive the Buddha's fingerbone, which he called "a filthy object" and which he said should be "handed over to the proper officials for destruction by water and fire to eradicate forever its origin." He believed that literature and ethics were intertwined, and led a revolution in prose style against the formal ornamentation then popular. He championed instead gu wen (old style prose), which was characterized by simplicity, logic and an emphasis on apt and exact expression. He was the center of a group of prose writers who adopted this style, a group which included Meng Jiao, whose poetry Han Yu appreciated. Other writers included in this anthology who adopted this style include Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi (Su Dongpo). While Han Yu's lasting reputation lies as a prose innovator, he was also a fine poet.
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The Gorge of Virtuous Women

The river curves, the gorge narrows, spring current is wild,
thunder and wind battle and scare off fish and dragons.
A suspended torrent whoosh! plunges into a water palace,
rushing down thirty miles like rolling clouds.
A floating boat hits a rock and shatters into thousands like a smashed tile.
An inch or foot amiss, and life will drift off light as a feather.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

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Spring Snow

No flowers yet in the new year
but fresh grass blades surprise me in early February.
Impatient for spring, white snowflakes
swirl through trees and courtyard like petals.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

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A Fallen Petal

Parted from my branch, I fall to the ground.
How can I bear feet trampling my color?
For no reason spring wind does me another wrong B
blown to the neighboring west, I can never return.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping